Brian Daniels diesel workbench

Brian Daniels

Brian Daniels

Western Thunderer
I have been building a Mercian Models PWM shunter kit recently which whilst it does indeed look like a PWM has a few shortcomings.

The first problem when making the body is the bonnet top. It's made of such a thick gauge nickle silver it could have been used as a spare for the real thing. What a job to bend it, even after annealing. Then you have to try and punch rivets out in an upturned trough. There are also no holes provided for the turned handrail knobs that go down the middle of the curve. Getting the radiator cowling to match, as near as damn it, was fun. I had to make a surround for the rad slats in the front as there is just a flush etch front provided without four holes needed for handrail knobs at the top. I made the body removable from the footplate to ease painting I hope but I think I might do this in all over yellow so being able to split it might not be an issue. Still got to work on the cab roof, not too keen on it's fit at the moment. The buffers I used are JLTRT, whilst not 100% they are self contained and do not rotate. Vac pipe is as supplied in kit but re-bent to a lower position. Couplings are from Exactoscale. With the chassis I decided to use wiper pick-ups as I thought 6 plungers on a little shunter might be too much. The sandbox casting supplied are not quite correct for these so I used some from a JLTRT 45. Again not 100% but better than the supplied ones I think. The parts supplied for the lubricator are a bit of a mystery, I just can't work out why I need a whitemetal 4mm flycrank? I am working with the bits here to hopefully make it work ok.

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auld_boot

auld_boot

Western Thunderer
It's interesting to see the part differences when compared to those included in my kit, at least you have some parts for the lubricator linkage even if it is guess work how they are meant to fit together!

Note the air tanks and the brass tube I have added and cut to correct size of air tank, I realise I bought one of the first kits released but those tanks are nothing like the PWM tanks.
I think my sandboxes are a better representation, I wonder why they were not included in your kit.
Were the cast lamp irons included for you or did you purchase those separately?
IMG_3019.jpg

On the constructive side I was thinking of cheating slightly and mounting the lubricator on the chassis rather than the footplate so that the chassis could be removed without disconnecting the linkage. Although after seeing your pictures of the real lubricator it looks like I'm going to have to hunt for something that looks more like the 'proper job'.
 
Yorkshire Dave

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Brian Daniels said:
Then you have to try and punch rivets out in an upturned trough.
Click to expand...

It's a shame the stable door has been shut after the horse has bolted :(. For rivets I would have suggested Archers decal rivets - it would have saved the time and the difficulty you encountered.

And in Auld Boot's photo it doesn't look like the vacuum hose has been cast properly. That alone should have failed quality control.

Yours and Auld Boot's builds of this loco are valuable in describing how both overcome the shortcomings.
 
Brian Daniels

Brian Daniels

Western Thunderer
It did go through my mind to use Archers believe me and a couple of times I thought I would definetly be using them!

Interesting parts comparison there Auld Boot. My vac pipes are the same as yours but mine where all there! I re-bent them to make them a low level pipe instead of a high one like these. The lubricator should be a square box and not a "tube" as supplied, wonder why you got two? Who does a nice square one then? What was going on with those air tanks. The cast lampbrackets were in the kit.

I spent about 4 hours yesterday making the lubricator work from the parts supplied. One big problem was the long etched rod from the crank was too long! So after I had made it and found this out it was out with the cutters to shorten it by about 2mm. The nice machined crank on the end of the crankpin was fitted by a 10BA bolt. I tapped the wheel and the Slaters top hat bearing as well and screwed the whole lot together from the back, finishing off by filing flush the front face so the operating rod can pass it on it's circular motion. One little problem to sort out now though is the cast wheel infront of the footplate should be below it. I can't lower the lubricator casting by much or it will be on the wheel rim. I think looking at the wheel casting is a bit big so will look in the spares box for a steam loco cab control etch wheel to replace this cast one. Forgot to say I added a little bracket on the chassis to attach the lubricator as I did not want it on the footplate so you could not separate the two easily.


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auld_boot

auld_boot

Western Thunderer
Considering what was supplied for parts you've made a cracking job of that lubricator. Although I agree that hand wheel does look too big, as do BOTH of mine!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for mine at the moment, I had a dig about in parts box myself as well earlier. I did find a few 4mm valve gear parts that might come in handy for linkage and a smaller hand wheel.

It's not helping seeing those lovely lubricators on the Martin Finney Duchess thread! A different class of part altogether. Hobbyhorse list one that could perhaps be made to fit part: 7I007
But I'm not sure I want to invest more money in this kit, especially when Michael Edge has a test etch ready to build for PWM650.
 
Brian Daniels

Brian Daniels

Western Thunderer
Has it really been over a year since I did anything here!

At the moment diesels are having a rest as I get on with a Dave Andrews re-built West Country kit. All going well apart from I might have lost a couple of lost wax sprues, one with electric lamps and one with backhead details. This could be a problem as Dave Andrews does not do these kits anymore. Anyway we are nearly there just one bit of valve gear from the middle wheel to the radius arm and the pipework under the cab this side to sort. I have a set of the Finney7 wheel etches to build up the wheels as the Slaters ones have too much of a recess in them. Can't get them to go over the tender wheels though!


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Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
mickoo said:
Why not?

They are designed as a tight fit on the boss to avoid having to use glue, so I'm guessing it'll be the boss area that's the source of your woes.

If the tender is a problem are the Delta truck ones as well, should be the same wheel under there on the MN class.

MD
Click to expand...

3/16" vs 5/32" axles and correspondingly different sized hubs...?

Steph
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Steph Dale said:
3/16" vs 5/32" axles and correspondingly different sized hubs...?

Steph
Click to expand...
That's a good point, the overlays are designed for the Finney7 models which use 5/32" axles for the Delta and tender with a nominal 8.2 mm hub.

Having said that, Brian has fitted the bogie ones which are also designed to fit 5/32" axles, so unless Brian has fitted 5/32" on the bogie then those at 3/16" appear to still fit.
 
Last edited:
Brian Daniels

Brian Daniels

Western Thunderer
The centre boss on the larger tender wheels is larger but the etched hole is about the same for the smaller bogie wheels. Boss is 8.48mm and hole in etch is about 8.2mm.

wc27.jpg
 
MarkR

MarkR

Western Thunderer
The David Andrews rebuilt West Country is a lovely loco, is anyone else taking over his former range of kits?

Mark
 
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